The idea that the 5G Xperia program is being accelerated comes courtesy of Sony's fiscal first quarter results for the year (that's the three months to 30 June 2018) which, as reported by Xperia Blog, has just revealed that due to "severe competition" the Japanese maker is "working on countermeasures" to address its falling mobile sales.

Now, whether or not the 5G Xperia that Sony is rumoured to be working on is the recently leaked Sony Xperia XZ3, which reports indicate we could see as early as IFA 2019, or a separate new flagship to launch in early 2019, remains unclear.

Earlier in the year Sony identified key areas that it needed to address in order regain its dominant foothold in the smartphone business.

And, if anything, this latest admission in the maker's results adds another piece to the next-gen Xperia phone puzzle, and the complete picture is starting to appear.

Now, not only do we have multiple official communications stating that Sony is working on "countermeasures" to address the fact that its "product competitiveness is still lagging behind the top class competitors", but also a series of leaks that directly seem in line with the key focus areas the company layed out in its Sony IR Day 2018 presentationback in May (see above table).

But it seems like whatever plan Sony is working to could now have to be accelerated in light of the results that have seen it downgrade its forecast of phone's shipped once more, moving southwards from 10 million down to 9 million by the end of this year.